


Senses

by paralleltonone



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-08
Updated: 2012-12-08
Packaged: 2017-11-20 15:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paralleltonone/pseuds/paralleltonone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn wonders if she knows. He wonders if she can sense everything he thinks she should and everything Zayn knows. And what Zayn knows is that Liam isn't hers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Senses

          Zayn wonders sometimes if she knows. Most of the time, he’s positive that she does. He thinks that he can see it in her eyes whenever she looks at Zayn, hear it in her voice when she actually decides to speak to him. Her boyfriend wasn’t her boyfriend, and hadn’t been for a long time. Liam was _their_ boyfriend.

 

           ** _Touch_**. Sometimes, Zayn wonders if Danielle feels goosebumps rising against her palm when she’s touching Liam in the same way that Zayn does when he touches him. He wonders if she feels him shiver from the contact, if she’s able to invoke that same response from him. He wonders if Liam ever brushes a hand over hers and rubs at her side while holding her close against him, for absolutely no reason at all. He thinks about how it feels when Liam runs his hands through his dark hair and then pulls him close before kissing him, and he wonders if Liam does the same with Danielle and her head full of curls.

          He’d almost gotten caught red-handed once. Another movie night at Liam’s, something Zayn was used to since breaks were often spent like this. One of the Batman movies was on. Zayn was sure it was the second: _Batman Returns_. All he knew was that Liam kept mentioning how much he wished Michael Keaton hadn’t let George Clooney and Val Kilmer fill his spot, that he should have protested it. It was supposed to be their time together, no interruptions or visitors, and so, Zayn was comfortable with his head pressed against Liam’s shoulder, Liam’s fingers passing through his thick locks as Michelle Pfeiffer took down Christopher Walken. Liam brushed against the hair at the nape of his neck and Zayn looked to him with a reciprocated smile. He’d been pulled in close by the younger man. Then Zayn learned that Danielle was the holder of that third key Liam had insisted he needed to have made.

 

           ** _See_**. Zayn considers from time to time that she probably sees the varying marks of violet and deep red against Liam’s skin, and he asks himself if she ever questions the bruises left behind from where Zayn’s legs or hands had gripped Liam’s waist or had a thought that the ones along his neck and collarbone didn’t come from Louis’ idea of a joke. Zayn never held back when he and Liam were alone, never once purposely tried to hide what they were doing from Danielle. He hadn’t even tried to hide it a little more than a year before when Liam came to him after the two of them had a massive argument, and their relationship went to a level they hadn’t turned back from.

          There’d been a barbeque the summer before in Harry and Louis’ backyard, and Liam brought Danielle. Zayn could remember the way she sat on the side of the pool, completely amused as she watched Harry shove Louis in and none the wiser of Liam wrapping his arm around Zayn’s shoulders and tugging him to him to kiss at his temple and then over his jaw down to his lips completely in eyesight of and no more than fifteen feet from her. He could also remember the expression she had when she did look up in their direction and found them engaged in conversation, Zayn’s hands brushing around Liam’s waist momentarily, his fingertips fitting against the fading bruises there perfectly.

 

           ** _Hear_**. He wonders if she hears it in Liam’s voice when he speaks to Zayn, if she picks up on that same adoration that Zayn gets from him. Danielle should know the tone his voice takes on because even Zayn hears it when he hears them together, Liam’s voice dripping with traces of every emotion he possesses for her. Zayn has never felt jealous, though. He knows Liam loves Danielle, but he knows Liam also loves him. He can hear it every time Liam speaks of how much he misses her or about something she’d said, and he’d managed to overhear it when Liam would talk of something Zayn had given him or something they’d done together. It was deeper than simple admiration; it was love.

          Liam told Zayn he loved him once, right in front of Danielle. Backstage before a show, hugs and well-wishings of luck were being exchanged between the five men. Danielle had been there that night, coming to see the show while she had the time and they were close to home. They were just about to head out to the stage when Liam’s arms engulfed Zayn’s frame and he murmured those words Zayn had heard so many times before in private and occasionally in front of the band, but never in front of Danielle. To her, it may have been words between friends, but Zayn knew that tone, and he knew what Liam meant when he said those words to him.

 

           ** _Taste_**. Zayn questions sometimes if his taste is strong enough for her to savor against Liam's lips. He wonders if the menthol of his cigarettes and the faint honey tinge of his lip balm is still lingering there whenever Liam's full lips lock against hers after they’ve been together. Sometimes, hers is. Zayn will notice it when Liam pecks him hello or their tongues collide in a heated kiss. It’s changed from time to time, cherry to lemon-lime to some weird vanilla-citrus fusion and everything in between, but it remains odd. It’s always girly and potent and Zayn hates it.

          One time, Zayn decided to change it up too. Liam had noticed and mentioned him tasting like a cross between mint and winter, like frost. Zayn himself could taste the lip balm the whole day through that time, even after he'd eaten without him even reapplying it. There was no doubt in his mind that Danielle had to too after Liam met her at the cinema that night. He’d covered Liam in enough kisses to practically bury him in it. Liam liked it, he’d said so. Still, Zayn threw it away, went back to his honey-dropped norm and that was the end of that. The morning after _The Lion King_ in 3D, though, Zayn found himself on the receiving end of a heap of almond and Coca-Cola flavored kisses. It was all Liam and it was great.

 

           ** _Smell_**. It was the strongest of all, Zayn thought. It was in Liam's clothes after they'd embraced long enough, in Zayn's clothes Liam would have no choice but to put on after Zayn would pick his up from the floor, on his skin when they'd share Zayn's wash in the shower. She had to know Liam's scent by heart just the way Zayn did and she had to know when she didn't smell his usual clusterfuck of fragrances on him. Zayn knew hers. He could remember how after the one time Liam spent an entire week with Danielle, he was certain the Dream Angels Heavenly that’d blended with his own colognes would never leave his body.

          Liam owned a blue t-shirt that Zayn loved. Zayn had worn it several times before, and even once again in front of Danielle who remarked, "Li has a shirt just like that; it gets all those ugly-looking wrinkles all over it too." And Zayn only nodded and smiled. A look had flashed over her face for a split second and Zayn thought maybe it'd clicked. That she knew her boyfriend had been wearing that shirt just the day before and now, the following morning, it was on Zayn. When Zayn took it off that evening, it was laced in Gucci. Zayn didn’t wash it before he returned it. His white t-shirt hadn’t been washed either, and he slept in it the night Liam gave it back.

 

          Sometimes, he wants to call her up and tell her every detail of the past 14 months, tweet her Liam’s where and what abouts when he isn’t with her, text her the pictures he keeps close of their most intimate moments. Make sure that she knows it, but then Zayn is pretty sure that Danielle knows the truth. He’s positive that she can sense why Liam quivers when Zayn touches his back, why his eyes get as bright as the sun when Zayn smiles at him, where he gets those abrasions she didn’t give him, what Zayn whispers to him so much, why Zayn is continuously outfitted in Liam’s closet.

          Her boyfriend isn’t her boyfriend. He’s theirs.  


**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: [livewhilewereforeveryoung](http://livewhilewereforeveryoung.tumblr.com)


End file.
